Former Labour stronghold looking too close to call in three-way stand-off

WEST Dunbartonshire could be too close to call.

The SNP took charge at the last election, winning 10 councillors, and unseating Labour.

However, they lost one last year when Caroline Mcallister became one of the first to defect to Alex Salmond’s Alba.

Labour went from 12 councillors to eight. It was the first time they hadn’t been the biggest party on the council since it was created, following the breakup of the old Strathclyde Regional Council.

This was traditionally a solid red part of the country. The authority’s three biggest towns, Alexandria, Clydebank and Dumbarton, all used to be reliant on heavy industry.

The party has a well-oiled campaign machine, used to scrapping in tight races. Jackie Baillie, the MSP for Dumbarton is one of just two constituency Labour MSPS in the whole of Scotland.

If Anas Sarwar’s great Scottish Labour revival is to materialise, West Dunbartonshire is exactly the sort of council he’ll need to take back.

The SNP are strong here too. This is one of the four councils in Scotland where a majority of voters backed independence in the 2014 referendum.

Martin Docherty-Hughes, the SNP MP for West Dunbartonshire, took just under 50 per cent of the vote at the last Westminster election.

However, what could make life tricky for the party is a recent decision by the Scottish Government to slash £2million of attainment challenge funding for some of the most deprived schools in the area.

SNP council leader Jonathan Mccoll said he was “flabbergasted” by the decision and wrote to the government urging them to overturn their decision, he admits that it could have an impact.

“What makes me even more angry at this point is that I asked for some information from the Scottish Government as to how they expected me, as an SNP leader, to defend the indefensible,” he told the Lennox Herald earlier this year. “I’m certainly not going to defend it.”

Another key issue is over services at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

The SNP, Labour and the Tories are the only parties fighting in all six wards in West Dunbartonshire.

The Greens are only standing in one. Alba’s sole councillor here is leaving, and the party haven’t put up any candidates to replace her.

Neither they or the Liberal Democrats are standing here at all.

It’s worth keeping an eye out for Jim Bollan. He’s a West Dunbartonshire stalwart, first being elected as a Labour councillor in 1988. He then stood as an independent before becoming one of the SSP’S only elected representatives.

He initially announced his retirement in February 2015. However, he changed his mind and stood in 2017 for the West Dunbartonshire Community Party.

Mr Bollan is still not quite ready to go and will be standing again in the Leven ward.

2017: Result: SNP 10 Lab 8 Con 2 WDCP 1 Ind 1.